Climbers Reach Glacier on Mera

Day 7 on approach

Yes­ter­day the Mera Peak team arrived at Khare. From here at about 16,000 feet, we make a quick jump up to Base Camp today. Yes­ter­day we rest­ed and recov­ered from the hike to Khare. 

The whole team, includ­ing our cook staff and porters, are in good health! As we slow­ly get to know every­body, it seems that many are from or near Luk­la, includ­ing three Sher­pani women that are with us car­ry­ing loads. We hear Lapkha’s laugh, yes­ter­day in camp, as he goes from one stone tea house to anoth­er, check­ing in on his fel­low Sherpas.

A team com­ing off the moun­tain tells us that there is up to 3 feet of new snow up high, which forces them onto the 20,000 foot south sum­mit. Not a bad con­so­la­tion prize, but we hope the snow will con­sol­i­date over the next two days to allow us to reach the more than 21,000 foot cen­tral sum­mit, from which we will be able to see five of the world’s four­teen 8000 meter peaks. 

Today we have our first bit of glac­i­er trav­el to make it to base camp where we will set­tle in and get our gear ready for mov­ing to high camp tomor­row, which is at about 19,000 feet, and will put us in good posi­tion for the sum­mit attempt on the 22^nd Nepal time!

- Mark Gunlogson